to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site. There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah.” (Genesis 49:29–31)
In addition to being buried [קָבַר/θάπτω] above ground in a cave (the same as it was centuries later for Jesus (Matthew 27:60), the corpses of many well-to-do people in the Old Testament era were entombed in handcrafted stone sepulchers [קִבְרָה/μνῆμα and τάφος], which were placed in either a burial vault remaining above ground or in a burial chamber underground, i.e., a grave. In Job 21:32, [גָּדִישׁ] is a sepulchral mound or tomb. The piling of stones and/or soil over a corpse (Joshua 7:26, 8:29) as well as a burial in a dug hole to be later refilled also served to dissipate putridity’s odor as well as to ward off hungry animals’ attraction to it.
A 3,000-year-old Philistine cemetery was recently discovered on the Israeli coast near Ashkelon. Excavation leader Adam Aja of the Harvard Semitic Museum told Foxnews.com.:
“I was impressed by the variety of burial types. We found stone tombs, children buried under sherds [fragments of pottery] or face down, pit graves, and cremations [in sealed jars]. This reveals that there was not a single burial practice for this population.
“The dead Philistines’ ages ranged from infants to senior adults, and were buried in several different ways. Most of the bodies were buried in shallow graves along with jugs and small containers that may have held perfume.”
Aja believes that the jar, bowl, and juglet assemblage that accompanied many skeletons may have been part of a wine drinking set. “It is unclear if this was intended for use by the dead or as part of the burial ceremony for the living,” he said.
“Some of the men were buried with ornamental beads or engraved stones, while most of the women and children’s remains had on jewelry—earrings, rings, and bracelets that were generally made of bronze or beads.”1
“Cremation represented one of the usual burial practices for pagan Romans. With the emergence of Christianity, burials began to take place in catacombs. This word is derived from the Greek meaning ‘within the quarries.’ Catacombs are underground cemeteries consisting of intricate labyrinths or tunnels with recesses for burial chambers. There are more than sixty sites of catacombs in Rome which date from the end of the second to the early fifth century CE.” (The Jerusalem Post, 01.08.2017 Tevet, 5777) Yet, “cremation was abhorrent to Rome’s Christian and Jewish minorities. Since land was scarce and costly, it made sense for both communities to bury their dead underground.” (“Labyrinth Under Rome,” Wall Street Journal, January 7–8, 2017, page C14)
The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, Ben Davidson, Editor; Hendrickson Publishers:
יָשֵׁן = fall asleep, sleep.
קוּץ = (hiph.) awake from sleep or death, arise.
שֵׁנָא = sleep, dream.
The Analytical Greek Lexicon; Zondervan Publishing House:
κοιμάω = (passive perfect) fall asleep, be asleep, die.
καθεύδω = to sleep (in spiritual sloth) or (the sleep of death).
ὕπνος = sleep.
ὑπνόω = to sleep, euphemism for to die.
Each Hebrew verb is followed by its corresponding LXX’s Greek verb: